Pin Drop

Pin Drop asks you to find places on a 3D globe instead of picking from four answers. Each game has 10 rounds. Half of them name a capital city, such as "Where is Lima?", and half name a country, such as "Where is Mongolia?". The two kinds take turns, and no place appears twice in one game.

Drag to spin the globe, pinch or scroll to zoom, and tap to place your pin. Tapping again moves it, so a stray tap never costs you anything. When you're happy, press Drop pin to lock in your answer. You have 30 seconds per round, and the timer only starts once the globe is on screen. There's no speed bonus in Pin Drop: take the time you need to place your pin carefully.

Once you confirm, the globe turns to show your pin and the right answer, joined by a dashed line along the shortest route across the Earth's surface. A fact card then shows the country's flag, its capital with coordinates and its region. The timer stays stopped while you read, and you press Next question when you're ready.

Every round is worth up to 1,000 points, so a perfect game scores 10,000. Your score depends only on how far your pin is from the answer, measured along the Earth's surface.

For a capital, a pin within 25 km of the city scores the full 1,000. Beyond that, points fall away smoothly with distance: about 717 points at 500 km, 368 at 1,500 km and just 36 at 5,000 km. For a country, any pin inside its borders scores the full 1,000. If you land outside, the distance is measured to the nearest point of the country's outline, using the same curve. If time runs out before you place a pin, the round scores nothing. If you've placed a pin but not confirmed it, that pin is scored.

What On target means

A round is On target when your pin lands within 250 km of a capital, or anywhere inside the country you were asked to find. On target rounds count as correct: they build your answer streak, light up green on the round dots and count towards your results. A pin further away still earns points, but the fact card shows "Not quite" with the distance, and your answer streak resets.

250 km is roughly the distance from London to Paris, so On target is generous enough to reward knowing the right area without needing pinpoint accuracy at world scale. Zooming in before you drop helps when the answer is a small country or a capital near a border.

On Explorer, country borders are drawn on the globe and it starts facing the region you chose. You can play World or a single region, and every place comes from that region. It's the best way to learn where things are.

On Expert, the borders disappear and only coastlines remain. The globe starts on a random side of the world, so you have to find your way before you can find the answer. Landlocked countries and inland capitals become much harder, because there's nothing on the map to line your pin up against.

Start with the big picture. Spin the globe until the right continent faces you, then zoom in. Placing a rough pin first and refining it is faster than hunting at full zoom.

Use coastlines, large lakes and rivers as anchors. Many capitals sit on a coast or at the mouth of a river, while others lie deliberately inland. Knowing which is which narrows things down quickly. For countries, aim for the middle of the shape, not the edge: a pin anywhere inside scores the maximum, so there's no reward for risking a border.

Read the fact cards. Each one shows the capital's coordinates, and over a few games you'll start to remember which capitals are far north or south. If a region keeps catching you out, play it on Explorer until the borders feel familiar, then try it on Expert.